ONELIFE #36 – English
Land Rover’s Onelife magazine showcases stories from around the world that celebrate inner strength and the drive to go Above and Beyond. This special issue of Onelife marks Land Rover’s 70th anniversary – a celebration of unparalleled achievement and pioneering innovation. We bring you the incredible story of how we reunited an original 1948 car with its former owners, as well as looking back at Land Rover vehicles’ most intrepid expeditions around the globe.
Land Rover’s Onelife magazine showcases stories from around the world that celebrate inner strength and the drive to go Above and Beyond.
This special issue of Onelife marks Land Rover’s 70th anniversary – a celebration of unparalleled achievement and pioneering innovation. We bring you the incredible story of how we reunited an original 1948 car with its former owners, as well as looking back at Land Rover vehicles’ most intrepid expeditions around the globe.
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Ho-Pin Tung was born in the<br />
Netherlands to Chinese parents. In<br />
2017 he became the first Chinese driver<br />
to claim victory at the 24 Hours of Le<br />
Mans. He is also a Jaguar Racing driver<br />
in the Formula E championship<br />
THE CHALLENGE: DRIVE THE 99 TURNS OF THE<br />
‘DRAGON ROAD’ UP TIANMEN MOUNTAIN...<br />
STEPPING IT UP<br />
The steps themselves are a relatively new construction, rather than<br />
an ancient monument, which meant that Phil Jones and his team<br />
thought it could be done.<br />
“We first sent a local colleague to the site to measure the angles<br />
and send us the data. Based on this and a selection of satellite<br />
images, we built a section of the steps at our Gaydon testing site in<br />
the UK to see how the vehicle performed on a 45-degree hill.”<br />
The team deliberately chose the P400e, which combines an<br />
85kW electric motor and 2.0 litre engine, switching intelligently<br />
between the two modes. The electric power for example gives<br />
instant torque, which would be handy for accelerating out of the<br />
Dragon’s hairpin turns and vital for providing the necessary thrust to<br />
scale the full 999 steps.<br />
After the initial testing at Gaydon, and a period of several<br />
months to obtain the needed permissions from the local authorities<br />
to carry out the challenge, Jones flew to China to see the site first<br />
hand. “And that’s when I started to have doubts,“ he says. “When<br />
I first stood at the bottom and looked up at Heaven’s Gate, my first<br />
thought was, ‘What have I let myself in for here?’”<br />
However, Jones stuck with it and after further calculations, he<br />
returned to England, “not 100% confident of success, but sure<br />
enough to proceed.”<br />
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